Operation Hammer

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A Los Angeles Police Department CRASH initiative that began in April 1987, Operation Hammer was a large scale attempt to crack down on gang violence in Los Angeles. After a group of people at a birthday party were shot down on their front lawn in a drive-by shooting, Chief of Police Daryl F. Gates responded with a roundup of gang members. At the height of this operation in April 1988, 1,453 people were arrested by one thousand police officers in South Central Los Angeles (now South Los Angeles) in a single weekend.

By 1990 over 50,000 people had been arrested in raids. During this period, the LAPD arrested more young black men and women at any period of time since the Watts Riot of 1965. Despite the large number of arrests, in April 1988, there were only 60 felony arrests, and charges were only filed in 32 instances. Disputing that figure, Chief Gates has said that charges were filed on 70% of the suspects arrested.

The operation has been criticized as being flagrantly racist, and heavily employed racial profiling targeting African-American and Hispanic youths. These groups were labelled as "urban terrorists" and "ruthless killers." Some believe that this practice of singling out non-Caucasian citizens was the impetus for the 1992 Los Angeles riots that centered on motorist Rodney King.

Chief Gates was asked in a PBS interview whether the local people in the minority areas expressed thanks to the police:

Sure. The good people did all the time. But the community activists? No. Absolutely not. We were out there oppressing whatever the community had to be, whether it was blacks, or Hispanics. We were oppressing them. Nonsense. We're out there trying to save their communities, trying to upgrade the quality of life of people... [1]